POREG VIEW: Britain, particularly, London, has been a stronghold of LTTE and its sympathisers amongst the ethnic Lankan Tamil diaspora. LTTE’s ideologue, Antony Balasingham, used to operate out of the British capital, and coordinated the LTTE activities and its vast reach in the global media. 

It was against this background President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been skipping London during his overseas visits. While what prompted him to take the risk now remains unclear, the decision of the Oxford Union to cancel his talk after scheduling it is something that is not unexpected. The organisers and the police would have had a tough job in ensuring security to the visiting President on the one hand and in controlling the protesters on the other hand.

A video showing ‘war crimes’ has surfaced mysteriously coinciding with the arrival of President Rajapaksa in London and sparked off another round of loud demands for his arrest to stand for war crimes. The video reportedly shows a Tamil Tiger leader Col Ramesh under interrogation by army officers. Obvious conclusion is that he was either arrested or surrendered to the army. This development punctures the government’s case that the Tamil Colonel was killed at the end of the war and that his body was found along with two other Tamil Tiger leaders on May 17 last year.

President Rajapaksa is putting up a brave face.  “I am very sorry this (Oxford Union Talk) has had to be cancelled, but I will continue to seek venues in Britain and elsewhere where I can talk about my future vision for Sri Lanka,” his office quoted him as saying.

Under the British law, the Sri Lanka president could be arrested over the charge of human rights abuses. It appears that Rajapaksa indeed feared of his arrest but has been assured by the British government that he would be treated as a head of state.

As a double assurance of immunity to President Rajapaksa, the British Ministry of Justice Wednesday amended the law that puts visiting officials at risk of arrest for alleged war crimes at home.  Questions, however, remain on Prime Minister Cameroon’s ability to pilot the amendment through Parliament. Firstly he is heading a fragile coalition. Secondly, some fifty lawmakers cutting across party lines are demanding the trail of the Sri Lankan leader. It is possible that Cameroon will find himself on a sticky wicket even long after Rajapaksa returned home.